Author: gallopingcow

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Moving Time

I woke up reasonably early today, but in the back of my mind I still knew it wasn’t early enough. Summer started cleaning things up, but said she was waiting on me to be ready to leave. We eventually made it to my house after stopping to get her a coffee. We had to move a whole bunch of stuff that was in front of the front door, and shuffled some other stuff around to try and clear a path for the refrigerator.

We were late getting to U-Haul to pick up our truck, and then I had to switch us to a bigger truck so we could have a loading ramp. I don’t think she realized how much stuff we had to move, because we still left a lot of stuff. She left me with Justin and Jason to try and figure out my house, and then took Jason’s lady to her house to try and pack some stuff up there. It was a bit of a cluster from there, but we managed to load nearly the whole truck with just stuff from my house.

Our first stop was my parents’ house to drop off an extra grill. Then we made it to the new house and unloaded. The girls wandered off into the yard and left us to path our own way into the kitchen with the refrigerator. It got a couple of small dents, but I don’t think anything too visible. I don’t know how, because Justin and Jason were back and forth in my front doorway for what felt like forever. We ended up removing the door from the hinges and made it out.

Once we finished there, we went up to Summer’s to get her stuff, but evidently she hadn’t actually disassembled any furniture yet. We loaded a few things, but it was mostly wasted time with our help. We should have had things more ready to go for weeks now, and I just kept getting madder and madder.

We took one load of her stuff to the house, but had to go back for more after Justin left us. Then I had to run to my house for tools to unhook the refrigerator. We got it loaded up with her living room furniture, which we were only really taking so we could get rid of it. It had gotten so late that we ended up leaving the chest freezer, the laundry appliances, the kitchen table, her bed frame, the TVs, and an “antique” entertainment console that matched the rest of her furniture.

Jason and his girl left after we got the last of it into the house, and then I had to call U-Haul to schedule a later drop-off because Summer reached the Interactive Voice Response system and just gave up instead of waiting to talk to a person. Fortunately we were able to extend our time without any fees. We took her old sofa to “little” Jordan and left the chair by the dumpster, then got some gas and returned the truck.

Returning the truck took way longer than it should have because my phone nearly died, and they wouldn’t accept ultrawide photos. I took pictures of the truck about four times to get it done, and then the website cleared them and wouldn’t let me submit any more. After what felt like an hour of finagling, including several minutes on hold for some help, we finally got confirmation that our return was successful and we headed to her old house to pick up her car.

From there, I went to Zaxby’s for my first meal of the day, and sat in my kitchen floor to eat. The refrigerator water line leaked everywhere, so I also had to clean that up. Luckily it didn’t get to the carpet or the cabinets, or anything that was in the dining area. My car charger was still gimped to under 35 amps, and I didn’t have any of my things at the new house, so I just stayed home.

You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.

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What a Miserable Wretch

I was incredibly sore again today after cleaning carpets for so long last night. Summer took some stuff to the new house and then brought Eaddie back with some lunch. Eaddie had a band thing in the afternoon in Cabot, so they loaded up some more stuff to take while I waited at the house for Autumn to come get the rest of her crap that she never took when we kicked her out.

Summer came back, and Autumn eventually showed up quite a bit later than she told Summer, which already aggravated us. Then she came in and had the audacity to ask for help, when all Summer has done for the past month is move her own stuff to the new house. When she finished, Summer asked her to take some old clothes she didn’t want to keep to Goodwill, and she refused and started yelling that we couldn’t tell her what to do any more. I kicked her out again, and hopefully that will just be the last we hear from her for a very long time.

Summer and I had another load ready to go, so we went to the new house and unloaded. I wanted nothing more than a shower, but then I decided to redo the caulk in the shower instead. I also caulked the tub since Summer had scrubbed around the tile. I got better over time, but it took nearly the entire tube. I was really glad I didn’t buy the small squeeze tube.

Summer went home while I did that, and then I finally went home for a shower. By the time I made it up to her house, she was dead asleep. I cleaned up a bunch of leftovers to get them out of the fridge, and then it was off to bed.

I guess we can blame inflation for the “Freshman 50.”

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House Toad

As I was heading out the door, I noticed a little toad stuck in a sticky bug trap. I don’t have a clue how he got into the house in the first place. I get them in the garage occasionally, but this little guy was inside the laundry room. I got him out with some vegetable oil spray, and hopefully he’ll survive after I put him back outside.

Committed to showing up late to work, I stopped at Taco John’s for some breakfast to eat along the way. It was quiet in the office again, and I wasn’t having much luck staying focused. The big exciting thing of the day was when a security camera stole the IP of my virtualization server. Every day it’s something new. Fortunately I was able to track down the switch port of the camera, and shutting that down resolved my issue. I’ll wait until somebody complains to do anything more with the camera.

I skipped lunch because the “sloppy joes” didn’t look very sloppy or edible. Johnny called for some help with GoGuardian, and I tried to point him in a direction. It was tough not to just leave early, but I made it to the end of the day.

I changed and picked up some Hardee’s for a quick bite with Summer before getting into carpets again. She had been moving stuff for most of the day, so she was already tired. Our new Optimum router came in, so I got the internet going, and then I finished shampooing the rest of the master bedroom. Hopefully it’ll be dry enough to move some things in this weekend.

It was pretty late when I got up to Summer’s house. Eaddie stayed at the new house since her bed was cleared off again. The old house is feeling pretty empty except for a bunch of big stuff we need to move. I originally wanted to rent a box truck, but now I’m not sure it will be much help on account of how steep the new driveway is.

STROKE! STROKE! STROKE! STROKE!

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Let’s Review

I was a shut-in at work again today, stuck in my seat, trying to figure out why I couldn’t adopt our gateway router. Out of nowhere, I got a call from someone at the Department of Information Systems about a support ticket they still had open from January. He indicated our link protocol was still dropping, and wanted to know if we noticed anything. I shared how broken things have been, and welcomed the help.

I also got a call from Jay, the Executive Sales Director at TCW, regarding the review I left them last night. He apologized and offered to refund the money, and even offered a free month of service if I wanted to give them a shot. I felt much better after that conversation, and after hearing that they could offer synchronous gigabit service for the same price I got from Optimum, I’ll really consider switching. Being a smaller company, I think their terms were just a little half-baked, but Jay indicated that I’d be welcome to talk to the engineering team, and that they could work with me on just about anything I needed.

After work, I went home to charge for just a little bit before going to the new house. I took the housewarming gift to The UPS Store for return, stopped at Wendy’s for a quick bite, and then got to work on carpets again. All total, I’ve finished about two thirds of the master bedroom, so I should be able to completely finish it tomorrow, in time to move some furniture this weekend. I’m less worried about the living room since we don’t know what furniture we’re moving in yet, plus we still have ceiling drywall work to be done.

I eventually made it up to Summer’s, just before Eaddie did. She came and sat with me for a bit when she got home, and shared some fight videos from school. I know they had a pretty rough class coming up, so I guess they’re here now.

Rereview

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Deal with the Internet Devil

I had a really hard time getting started this morning. I was sleeping heavily, and had no energy at all. Kim was out, so I spent all day locked up in my office again. It was nice and quiet, I had some good coffee, and I spent nearly the entire day trying to re-adopt the USG-Pro-4 into our network. I was not successful, but to be fair the documentation was absolutely nonexistent.

Paul from TCW called to sell me some internet service. When I talked to him before, he said it would be ready last week. Today he scheduled an install for two weeks later. I didn’t love the idea of a two year contract, especially after all of the buyer’s remorse I’ve had with the new house, so I agreed to pay $10 per month to stay out of a contract. I figured $65 per month for 500 megabits was worth it just to leave Optimum, but then things got weird.

He collected a $50 deposit that would go toward my first bill. Then I got a contract by email that they wanted me to e-sign. The contract had a link to their terms of service, which outlined a whole bunch of things that I like to do that were prohibited. They also offloaded all liability for their own equipment onto the customers, and even threatened to cancel service without notice if you promote a competing internet provider. I decided not to sign the contract, and instead called to haggle with Optimum. They gave me gigabit service for $70 per month and a $200 gift card for signing up. In retrospect, that’s their normal pricing for new customers, so I wish I had haggled harder.

The Optimum service would also be set up before the end of the week, which was nice. I called TCW back and was transferred right back to Paul, which made me appreciate them as a small company. However, after a friendly conversation to cancel my installation appointment, he told me that the deposit couldn’t be refunded. No service had been rendered, and in fact, I called to cancel just 45 minutes after he had called me to solicit their service. He refused to budge, so I’ll just have to dispute the charge as soon as it clears my Discover Card.

I didn’t take a break for lunch, and then left a little bit late. I made it home to change, and then immediately took off to my parents’ house for a quick dinner before going to the new house to clean carpets. Eaddie showed up with a couple of friends and some boxes from the old house, but then acted like she was embarrassed to live in a no-shoe household. Nearly all of the houses I ever visited growing up didn’t allow shoes past the front door, so I don’t know what her issue was. These girls act like they were raised by wolves.

Once I finished shampooing the carpet in the final closet, I stripped caulk from around the tub. There was quite a lot of it under the seam in some areas, so hopefully pulling that all out won’t mess with anything. I’ll just have to re-apply it with a heavy hand.

The girls were pretty well settled in by the time I got to the old house. Summer had a few more things boxed up and ready to go, and everyone was ready for bed. I wrote a pretty scathing review of TCW, and then headed for bed myself, later than I wanted, as usual.

What kind of shady crap is this? And who still uses Usenet, anyway?

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Smudge, Rattle, and Scroll

I got a message back from Shaun early this morning about the rattle in my car and the smudge in front of the camera that kept triggering my wipers in the dark. That made me feel a lot better after having such an ordeal getting them to fix my windshield in the first place.

It was relatively quiet at work, but I actually had a student come in with a broken screen and payment for the damage fee. That got me in a rush to create a new tracking sheet for damage and repairs, which took most of the day.

They had some pretty decent fajitas for lunch, and then I went to the elementary at the very end of the day to fill up a cart that was missing some chargers and Chromebooks. I left as soon as I finished there so I could get to Fast Glass to meet up with Shaun. We took a trip around the block and discovered the rattle was coming from the headliner, so I babysat his dog Annie while he took the headliner down a bit and taped the rattling cable up. Afterward, he pulled the camera assembly down and discovered a smudge of some kind of residue in front of the cameras.

The rattle was resolved for the ride home, but I wouldn’t be able to test the erroneous wipers until it was completely dark outside. I spent the evening just hanging out at home so my car could charge, resetting the breaker multiple times, and taking a break to pick up some tacos for dinner.

When I finally made it up to Summer’s, she was helping Eaddie study for a test over some historical lawsuits, which fell to rote memorization. I dawdled a bit until they went to sleep, and then I followed along after.

That’s a big payment.

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Sandwich Day

Today was National Cheeseburger Day, but I didn’t realize it until later. I stopped at Burger King for breakfast since Kim would be out and I figured I wouldn’t eat lunch. I spent the entire day in my office, being mostly productive, but in questionably-important ways. I felt good about it, but I also felt a little bit bad about things left on the backburner.

I tried to get the electrician back out to the house to fix the bad breaker he gave me, but that didn’t happen. I also tried to coordinate a time to fix the rattle and the smudged camera on the Model 3, but never got a response from them either. Then I got a call from Griffin’s Home Improvement while I was on the way home. They wanted payment for the ceiling they literally and figuratively jacked up, so I had to run to the new house to get the check, and then run that to the opposite end of town to pay them. They weren’t at all surprised at my response, and knew it looked awful, but evidently they just don’t do drywall, and apparently nobody thought we wanted that done at the same time by the seller.

After I left there, I stopped at McDonald’s for my 50 cent double cheeseburger. I took it to AT&T and ate it while I chatted with both Kevins. When I left, I picked up a free double steakburger from Freddy’s and took it home. I wanted to charge my car for a bit, but tripped the breaker twice after I tried to slowly increase my charge rate. I should have just left it at the slower rate, because now I’ll be shy of my charge limit again tomorrow.

I eventually made it to the new house to water plants, and I was going to clean some more carpets, but ended up leaving after just a little while. I went to wash my car instead, and then headed up to Summer’s where I shared the news of the Burger Day deals.

Eaddie immediately jumped at the opportunity for some free Freddy’s, but she wanted a buddy, so I rode with her. Then I drove us to Dairy Queen and Burger King for two more stops before heading back to the house. Summer came out to eat with us, and then everyone was off to bed.

I’m sick of all this shoddy workmanship.

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Artsy Fartsy

I slept pretty heavily last night and woke up pretty refreshed. As soon as I got up and had my shower, I went to pick up Summer to take her to Little Rock to see her employee’s girlfriend’s art show at the food truck festival. That sounds like a lot, and it was. We stopped at Walmart in Conway for a couple flowers to take her as well, and made our way to Main Street Little Rock.

There were a ton of people there. It was too many, but it didn’t make me too anxious. I just wasn’t in the mood to walk and eat around that many people. We found their tent, Summer bought a couple things, and then we bounced right back to the parking garage.

We hit up two Targets to look for Ember mugs, but didn’t have any luck. Then we went across town to Chuy’s for a good lunch before heading back home. We stopped at the Conway Target with similar luck, and then again in Blackwell to scavenge for some boxes for moving. We made it to Summer’s with about 12% battery, so we loaded up her car and then dropped mine off at home to charge.

We took a big load of stuff to the new house and Summer filled cabinets and drawers while I cleaned the carpets some more. It’s been incredible how much fine dust I’ve pulled out of the carpet, and it makes me want to go back over again and again before I actually shampoo the living room. The closet wasn’t completely dry yet anyway, so all I did was vacuum.

Eaddie came over after some studying, and she and I went to my parents’ house for mango soup while Summer went home to do some laundry. After we ate, Eaddie took me to get my car, and we all met back up at the old house for bed.

We’re gonna need some darker crayons…

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Che Cazzo รจ Una Carbonara

I woke up pretty early this morning for how late I went to sleep, and sat on the couch for a while before going home to clean up. Once everyone was ready for productivity, I suggested lunch before starting on the house. Summer wanted calamari at La Villa, but that sounded awful to me. I tried to let them go themselves so I could get something quicker and get to work on the house, but Summer said they wanted me along, so I came up with some other options, compromising with Pasta Grill as a last option.

I should have just completely passed on the pasta, because just the idea of Italian threw me into a whole mood. I didn’t want a $60 lunch bill. I wanted something quick so we could get to work on the house. Time is running out, and I feel like I’m the only one that’s actually concerned about cleaning anything at that house. The girls are happy to pile their filth on top of the existing filth, and nobody is receptive to the idea of how to keep things tidy.

I made it to the house first, even after stopping by my parents’ house, because for some reason they had to go back to their old house to get the other car. Wasteful. Dad helped me place some wood in the driveway so Summer’s car wouldn’t scrape coming into the garage. Then I went inside to start cleaning carpets.

I had to empty the closet because Summer’s things were in my way. Then I had to take my vacuum home to clean it out, because Summer hadn’t noticed the inch-wide band of hair in the brush, or the fact that the cyclone chamber was completely caked with dust. I took it home and cleaned it thoroughly before coming back to the new house to vacuum. Afterward I shampooed the carpet in the dark because the light was blocked for over half of the area I was working.

The girls made a trip or two for things, and Summer started filling cabinets, which was something I specifically asked them not to do. I also asked them to sweep and Swiffer the hard surfaces when they got back, because they kept tracking dirt into the carpeted areas. For some reason, Summer did that last, after carrying things into the spare bedrooms. I’m constantly at wit’s end, and I don’t know how much more specific I can be when I ask them to do things. All I get is reflected frustration from them when I get upset that they did something wrong, and it just spirals downward every single time.

I guess Eaddie went home to do homework after dropping off some stuff. Summer finally cleaned the floors and then left. I went to my parents’ house for some mango soup for dinner before going to Walmart for some new silicone caulk. Then I stopped to get an air purifier that I forgot to get from Dad before going back to the house to re-caulk the shower again. The last stuff just never dried, but even the new stuff started to skin over and get lumpy while I was working it.

By the end of it all, I was tired, aggravated, frustrated, angry, sad, and alone. I locked up and went home, because that’s where I wanted to be.

I hate that Italian restaurant menus all just assume you know what the fuck they’re talking about.

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The Center of the Target

I finally got a call this morning from Will, who wanted to work on the trusses at the new house. I missed that while I was in the shower, so I called him back on the way to pick up Dad, and then we ran by the house to get a code to let them in. Then Dad and I headed toward Tulsa, stopping at the Workman’s Travel Center in Ozark for a charge and some breakfast. He had already eaten a little bit, so I just got some junk food from the glass case. From there, we stopped at Casey’s in Van Buren for a bit more juice to get all the way to the first of five Targets in the Tulsa area

They were clearing out some of the Ember mugs, and I wanted to pick up another for use at home since I enjoy mine at work so much. They were out of the travel mug and the rose gold color that was discounted the most, but I did pick up a white one for $75. We didn’t stick around though, and stopped at another Target on the north side of town. They didn’t have anything I wanted, so our next stop was downtown to try Coney Island dogs and tamales. They weren’t bad, but there wasn’t anything special about them. Sonic does it just fine for me.

After we ate, we walked a couple blocks to visit The Center of the Universe, which was sort of an art installation, if you could call it that, where sounds echo off of some round planters and make your voice sound weird when you stand in the middle of the circle.

We continued on from there to another Target with a Supercharger. It was a bit of a walk with no success, and then we found our way to the Oklahoma Aquarium. It was neat as always, and we actually got to see them feed some of the animals. We even touched some surprisingly dense jellyfish.

We fought traffic for two more Targets, and then ended up at Tesla to pick up the Model Y. They did a slightly better job on the paint than the Kansas City Service Center did on delivery day, but by the time we made it to Tulsa twice, I think I stopped caring. We loaded up the two old wheels and headed straight home, stopping in Van Buren and then powering straight home.

I wanted to check out the work on the house since nobody was there to watch. I guess structurally it may be better, but it looks awful and one of the ceiling fans is completely cocked to the side now. We have no choice but to pay some drywall people to come and make it right. I took Dad home, went in briefly to see Mom, and then headed to my house to charge up a bit before going to Summer’s.

Eaddie got home just before I got there, but then everyone was in bed. I stayed up pretty late without purpose. At least I can keep my coffee hot now.

Where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain.